A Simpler Life 2018

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Looking for a bed for him on Gumtree (as he’s currently in a cot). A lot are just as expensive as getting a new one! My husband wants to get him a toddler sized bed but I want to go straight into a single and save buying another bed in a year or two. We’ll see who wins that one!

You can make the bed up 'halfway', so that he doesn't feel lost in a single bed. Just use a plain sheet and use it as both bottom and top sheet, folded at the feet, similar to a sleeping bag. If you're afraid he will fall out of the bed, you can roll up a towel lengthwise and put it underneath the bottom sheet at the roomside of the bed to form a ridge.

Thanks Siebre! We actually already have a bed rail which is on our bed on my side as DS comes in with us most nights so my plan is to move that to his new bed. He’s big enough now he can go between us if he does come in, though I’m trying to stop doing that (my husband is a very heavy sleeper which is why I always had him on my side before).

Good tip re the sheet! Think DH is concerned it will take up too much floorspace, but it’s a decent double size room and he never plays in there anyway.

jackyann wrote: »

Hello all, back after best part of a month without internet access, and have decided that on the whole, the internet makes life 'simpler'.

It certainly does. Our phone line went down on 22nd december and took until 31st to come back on properly. I was surprised by how much more relaxed we were over Christmas and also how much napping I did!

CurlyTop wrote: »

There are two book related threads on MSE that may interest you.

The Bookworm 2018 one here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5766465

but the one that may help is the No more Buying books until I've read the ones I've bought already:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2263095

Thanks for the links. Went over to the Bookworm 2018 thread and found myself making a list of books to find, so that may not be the thread for me at the moment :rotfl:

The No More Books thread is where I think a recovering addict like me belongs!

I'm another one with no room for a linen bin, things to be washed go into the machine to await a full load and anything pale (I own almost nothing in white other than sheets and teatowels) gets pulled out if it's not a hot wash.

I'm a seriously-green person but have tried and then abandoned washing at 30 degrees. Things just weren't coming up clean. The vast majority of my washes are mixed coloureds at 40 with the occasional 60 wsah for bedlinen. Haven't any outside drying space (city centre microflat) but sun is the best brightener going.

I have no truck with fabric conditioner. Hate the smell and feel of things using it, and it's just one more thing to create waste imo. Plus, fab con causes elastane to degrade prematurely, so anything containing elastic should avoid it.

One tip I'll share in case it may be of assistance; rubbing neat washing up liquid into an oil stain. I once threw about a cupful of cooking oil over a clean pair of cotton trackie pants just after having done my wash. I wasn't putting the machine on just for them so rubbed neat w.u.l in and left to dry and laundered several days later - every bit of the oil came out, most impressive.

Gardening this month? Soil prep, cultivation, manuring etc. Possibly planting onion sets, although I usually do mine in early Feb. Too early for most things.